


A Conspiracy in Brown Lake

by Muffin701



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe, Blood and Violence, Minor Character Death, POV Multiple, Teenagers, super powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:47:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 9,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27838585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muffin701/pseuds/Muffin701
Summary: A pair of childhood friends Alex Miller and Rhode Callaway through a series of events get involved in a conspiracy spanning their town of Brown Lake West Virginia.This story takes place in an alternate 1996 in the fictional town of Brown Lake, in which the cold war is still ongoing, instead of chocolate growing on plants you have to mine it, and sometimes there are superpowers.





	1. Chapter 1

#  **CH. 1 A Bad Start to a New Year**

“Hey, Alex what’s the address for your friend Braid’s New Year’s party?” 

I replied to my brother James with “First his name is Brian, and you can just drop me and Rhode off here. His house isn’t that much further, and you can go do whatever you were gonna do with your friends.” James opens up the side door of his van and says, “well here you go”. 

Rhode and I get off and start walking up the gentle hill and through the December cold to get to our mutual friend’s house. After a bit of silence, Rhode pipes up and asks “H-hey what are you looking forward to about 1996?” 

“I don’t know maybe the end of the cold war so we can stop pissing ourselves every time Russia does something. How about you?” I shrug at her.

“Same, w-wonder what Brian has in store for the party. I heard he's been planning it for a while now,” Rhode says while she’s looking noticeably excited.

“Well, we're basically there, how about we just go and find out.” We both start walking on his lawn up to the front door. The first thing I notice are the decorations on the house. The outside of his house is still decorated with a multitude of Christmas decorations from earlier this month, and through a large first-floor window, I see a large banner that says “HAPPY NEW YEAR’S” with a small 1996 written on printer paper under it. The very next thing I notice is that their door is ajar, which is odd because even when Brian knows we're coming over he keeps the door closed. I don’t see anyone outside that would have left the door open.

We both approach the door and peak. There is nothing notable in the entrance hall. We also see that none of the lights in the house are on. Rhode pushes me behind her and whispers, “Let’s-s investigate, C-cover my b-back.” We advance into the living room and she fumbles around for a light switch. Rhode finds one quickly. She’s been here before. As the light washes over the scene, I scream out in horror. 

The living room is covered in blood. So much, in fact, that the once white carpet has become stained a dark scarlet. His body parts are scattered around the room, an arm on the couch, a leg on the lamp, a torso on the table, and a head-mounted on the TV. The various holiday decorations around the room now seem ironic. I’m sure they’re making fun of me.

My scream was cut short as a hand was thrust over my mouth. “S-shut up, the killer might still be here.” Rhode was quickly proven right. We hear something coming down the stairs and coming in our direction. We both sprint out the back door to hopefully lose the killer in the forest that connects to the backyard. As we enter the forest, I look back and can make out a large black figure charging out of the dark at us. I pull Rhode off the path hoping that our smaller bodies will help us avoid the figure.

We continue to rush through the forest going in random directions. This did nothing to throw the figure off of our trail but did get us many scratches from the plants and wayward branches. We come across a river. We immediately dive in, swim across, and make it to the other side. The figure evidently can’t swim as they start pulling a log to the river to act as a bridge. We take this distraction as a chance to run deeper into the forest. A bit in, Rhode suggests we should climb and hide in a tree, so I give her a boost so she can grab a branch. Once Rhode’s up she puts her hand down to help pull me up. We climb higher into the tree’s canopy to better hide us. After a suspenseful minute, the figure passes under our tree and pauses under it. Rhode takes a rock out of her pocket and chucks in a random direction. The rock lands quite a distance away and makes a sound that stood out in the quiet forest. The figure starts to move in that direction and disappears into the darkness.

After waiting to make sure the figure was gone, we climb down the tree, careful not to make a sound. I quickly realize that I had no idea where we are, so I quietly ask, “Hey, you know where we are?” I’m answered by a quick head shake. So, we end up wandering in the opposite direction that Rhode threw the rock, hoping to run into life. After a solid 10 minutes of silent walking, as we were too afraid that the figure would find us, we find what looks like one of the entrances to the local chocolate mines. We duck behind a berry bush, as we see a familiar figure. Our pursuer heads into the mine. As the figure disappears once again from our sight, I move to start leaving, but an unfamiliar hand grabs our shoulders and stops both of us from leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks, anyone for reading this. This is my first time really writing anything so I would love some feedback and criticism. Again thanks for reading this


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Rhode met someone new, and are forced to help them.

#  **CH.2 A New Friend**

I turn around to try and look at the person that grabbed mine and Alex’s shoulder. I see a girl just a bit taller than myself with short brown hair, camo overalls, and a film camera hanging from her neck. I start getting ready for a fight but stop as I start to recognize her. She’s someone in my younger brother’s class, she came over a while ago to work on a project. I believe her name was Reedia or something similar.

“What is w-was that for?” I growl at her. She backs off a bit “Don’t sneak up on p-people at night”

“Wellll...I’ve been scoping out this mine. I heard something majorly suspicious was going on, and from the way, you were looking at it, y’all are interested too. So I approached you. Now I can answer all your questions,” she cheerily replied.

“How about you tell us how to get back to the town,” Alex says annoyed. 

“That doesn’t sound too fun. So, how about you two help me investigate the mine more intimately, then later I show you the way back. Deal” Reedia puts out her hand looking like she wants a handshake.

“ **Fine,** ” We both say, not taking her hand, and march over to the entrance. 

We enter the unguarded mine. The inside is well lit and seems to be used often. As we walk deeper, I take point, Alex gets my back, and Reedia lags behind. After a turn, we come across a door with solid steel surrounding it. I turn the handle and find that the door’s locked, so I turn around and head back. From behind me I hear “Whoa slow down we’re not going back yet. I know you can pick locks, so get on that. I want to find some real news.” I heave a sigh and reluctantly take out the necessary tools from my jacket pocket. I have it open in a jiffy since the lock is not a complicated one. 

Through the door is a hallway that looks like a whole other world compared to the dull rock face on our side of the door. The walls are made of metal, the roof is straight instead of curved, and the lights are the kind you would find in an office instead of the cheap mining lights. Reedia excitedly rushes into the first door on the right, and we join her, not wanting to lose our way home. 

This room seems to be some sort of research room with various papers scattered around and some scientific instruments that I don’t know the purpose of. On the far side of the room, I see a propped open door that leads into a dark room. Reedia is speeding around the room sometimes reading the papers, sometimes taking pictures of the stuff in the room. Seeing that she won't be done soon, Alex takes a seat just taking in all that's happened today. Not in the mood to sulk about that, I pick up a random paper and start reading it. 

It takes me a while to read because it was mostly science gibberish. But what I could understand is this lab is used to perform experiments on organisms from the moon. As I put the paper back, the door we came in through opens up, and incomes a highly armed guard in what seems to be military garb. Before the guard can process, I trip him and start running toward the door on the opposite side of the room. Alex sees what I’m doing and heads there. She gets there before he closes. I grab Reedia. Absorbed in gathering evidence, she is oblivious to what is happening. So, I pull her along, accidentally making her drop her camera on the ground. As Reedia and I cross the threshold, Alex closes the door and locks it behind him. I flick on the nearby light switch and use the newfound light to further barricade the door. 

“What was that for?” Reedia yells at me.

“Just SHUT UP, you got us in this crappy situation because you just wanted to have fun, you naive asshole. Now I have to find a way out because no matter how much I hate you, I don’t want you to die,” I yell back not caring how hurtful my words are. Now safe, and with idiots dealt with, I look around this room to see if I can find a way out. I see no way out except the way we came in. All the vents were too small. But what my mind focused on is the nine huge tubes housing what I can only describe as ghosts. My thoughts were interrupted by gunfire coming from behind the door. The bullets pierce through the wall, luckily missing me and Alex, unfortunately, they hit Reedia in the shoulder and broke the glass tubes. The round of fire allowed the guards to bust through, sealing our fate.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They get pinned down by the guards and encounter a supernatural power.

#  **CH.3 The Mysterious Power and Our Lucky Asses**

I managed to jump behind some sort of machine and so did Alex. He also pulled the injured Reedia with him, shortly after the guards burst in. The nine ghosts were now free to move wherever they wanted. With this newfound freedom, six of the ghosts fled through the walls to who knows where. This left three ghosts in this room. Their presence, for some reason, stopped the guards from approaching. One of the remaining ghosts went into Alex and disappeared. It didn't seem to do much to him except make him shudder like he just got cold water dumped on top of him. The next ghost got a much stronger reaction from the passed out Reedia. When this ghost disappeared into her, it woke her, and she immediately started screaming from her wound, not that I blame her. I probably would have done the same. The last ghost left was approaching me, so I closed my eyes and braced for the inevitable. After a second of not feeling anything, I opened them and saw the ghost just floating right in front of me. It mimicked the movements an animal would make when smelling something, but no air or sound came from the ghost. After that, this ghost joined its six friends and left through the wall.

Now that all the ghosts were gone from the room, the guards emerged from their stupor. This time, they moved to capture Alex and Reedia but continued to rain down fire on me. I guess these military jerks only want to capture people with spirits inside them. They’ll get rid of those who don’t. The machine I dove behind was thick enough to protect me from fire, but it’s getting slowly destroyed by the gunman’s sustained fire. The other guards were moving to flank me. During this time Reedia stopped screaming and started to just repeat “I just want to go home” in a quiet, hoarse voice. Just when Alex and Reedia were about to be captured, the floor suddenly turned reflective and Reedia passed out again. Right after, I start sinking into the floor, and quickly my head enters the ground. 

I am floating in a black void weightless, I call out “H-hello a-anyone there.” I get no response. Out of nowhere, a giant mirror appears, and I start gravitating towards it. I can’t fight against the pull, no matter how hard I try. So, when I inevitably touch it, the void disappears, and I’m dropped right on a front porch. Next to me, I see Alex and Reedia, Alex is lying down exhausted. Reedia is still passing out but with closer examination, I see that she is now perfectly healed. The only evidence of her bullet wound is discoloration on the skin and blood all over her clothes. 

“Do you know where we are?” Alex asks.

“Couple blocks away from s-school I believe.” I look closer at the house and see a nameplate above the door reading “Boutit” in wooden letters. “I think this is her house.”

“What do we do now?” Alex asks while looking around.

“We ring the doorbell, leave, and let her parents take care of her. Then, we go to the police station and report Brian’s murder. But we should leave out the creepy government building. No ones gonna believe us about that,” I say, already moving to the doorbell.

So I ring the doorbell, and from a block away we hear a horrifying scream coming from the house we left. We reach the police station quickly and quietly wanting to get this done with, and not wanting to quite yet discuss what happened. Alex opens the door to the station, inside the lights are on and there is only one cop on duty this late holiday night. The cop, noticing us, puts down his book and asks, “What can I do for you young folks this late.”

We both sit down and Alex starts weaving a story about how we arrived at our friend's house, saw his dead body, got chased out by the killer, and came here. While he was doing this I spotted a clock flipping over to twelve o’clock. Well, this was a great start to 1996.

The cop calls some off duty people to go out and investigate and calls our parents to pick us up. Alex’s dad comes right away leaving me alone with the cop. Not wanting to talk with-- or fall asleep in front of-- a stranger, I start reading a magazine from the cop's desk. About half an hour and two articles about the war in Indonesia, my brother Cab arrives in a tow truck from his job. I get into shotgun and he asks me very tenderly, “you wanna talk about what happened?”

“No,” I briskly responded, not looking at him.

Without missing a beat he asks “Ya me to take you home or to my apartment?”

“The apartment, Gary won’t have a problem with it right?” I start looking up at him. “Do you still have any of that hot chocolate?”

“He’d never object to me having my favorite sister and I always keep some of the Cocco for whenever you're feeling down. I’ll make you it right when we get there.” He says while lovingly rubbing my head. The tow truck gets parked in the apartment’s lot and we head towards his apartment. “I love you bro.” I say while giving him a hug. 

“Love you too sis.” He responds hugging me back. We proceeded to stay up until I passed out, doing various fun things to distract me. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The night and the morning after for Reedia.

#  **CH.4 A Nightmare and the Next Morning**

I am running in a dark endless halfway from something. What that thing is I don’t know all I know is that it is going to hurt me. I keep running even when I’m exhausted beyond belief because I don’t want that thing to ever catch up to me. The hallway in front of me is suddenly replaced with a wall. I start banging on it and yelling “Let me in” over and over again. 

I see the thing almost upon me and just cry defeatedly “Please go.” 

Neither the wall nor the thing listens to me, as the thing keeps approaching and the wall stays. I can now clearly see the thing and now I am certain that it’s a monster. It has thousands of tentacles ready to rip you apart or to grab and take you away. It also has a giant gaping maw filled with razor-sharp teeth to devour you and skin that shines any light back on you. One of the monster’s tentacles pierces right into my shoulder and uses its unimaginable strength to rip my arm off from that point. The pain is greater than anything I have ever encountered before. The blood just keeps spilling like a geyser quickly filling up the room with no sign of stopping. I try and cry out but the monster puts another tentacle into my mouth making me unable to scream.

The monster apparently full from just my arm starts stuffing all of its tentacles into different holes in my body. Most of them went through the newly made hole from my arm getting ripped off, somehow increasing even further. Others went into my mouth and nose in an attempt to stop me from making any noise. The monster completed this action by going entirely within my body. Being alone I look at my body to see any changes. Somehow I have not gained any mass from the giant monster going inside of me. The only change I see is that my arm is back again but now it is made of the same reflective skin as the monster was made off. As I look at the arm I see a reflection of myself and notice that my eyes have been replaced with balls of glass. Immediately after seeing this, the entire halfway disappears and I start falling. 

I start falling into this void scared of where I might fall. In front of me appears a female specter. She motions and I cease falling but I now can’t move whatsoever. The specter says “We have become one. So, my power of reflection is now yours.”

I try to speak to the specter but instead I wake up in a cold sweat. It takes me a minute to recognize my own room covered wall to wall with newspapers from various famous points in history, like the assassination of Nixon, after the nightmare. I glance over to my clock and see that it's five-fifty in the morning. Knowing I won't be able to go back to sleep, I start getting ready for the day. I give a look to myself in the mirror to make sure I look alright and I notice something off. My eyes have become the glass eyes from my nightmare. This change jogs my memory of last night.

Last night was a terrible night and I was a terrible person yesterday. If I didn’t force them to come with me none of this would have happened. Everything is my fault and cause I lost my camera I can’t prove anything. What was so important in that lab that they needed to kill us. Remembering the bullet I look at my shoulder and see that somehow it was healed, how did that happen. Wait how did I get back home. I need answers, all of this is stupid. I am stupid, how could I have let that happened. I have to somehow make this right. I suppose the first step is to give an apology, but I don’t know who those two were. Wait, they must have gotten me home somehow so I’ll just ask my parents who dropped me off. So, I went to the kitchen, made myself some toast, and waited for my parents.

My Dad is the first to get down and says to me “You're up early.” He makes himself so coffee then asks “What happened to you last night? You appeared on our porch passed out and covered in blood.” 

“I was looking through the butchers' rejects to try and find some evidence of hiding bodies there and I must have hit my head.” I nervously respond, “Do you know who dropped me off, I want to give them a thanks?” I add.

He takes a sip of the coffee and touches his chin and responds “We didn’t see anyone who dropped you off, you were just lying there all by yourself. You sure you don’t remember anything?”

I take a moment to make it look like I’m thinking and then say “I think I woke up for a bit when I was heading back and saw a person helping me. She was a short girl, with long black hair, and I think a dark purple sweater with a red C in the middle of it. Does that remind you of anyone?”

“I have a general idea. That sounds like one of the Callaway family sweaters, so it probably one of the Callaway girls. You want me to take you over there to ask what happened?” He replies while raising one of his fingers in the air.

“Naw I remember where their house is and I can handle myself. Plus you need to work on the paper anyway.” I answer, already getting ready to leave.

“Righty-o, but at least wait till your mom gets up. She'll want to make sure you are ok.” He says while getting the ingredients for scrambled eggs out.

“Ok” I pull my coat off, get back out of my shoes, go back into the kitchen, and wait for the eggs and my mother. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reedia seeks forgiveness

#  **CH.5 Seeking Forgiveness**

I went to the address I remembered from when I went there to work with Rex on a project. The house was just as I remembered it, two stories, rotting fence, boarded up window, and broken pick-up on the lawn. I approach the door and seeing no doorbell I knock. I hear some arguing from the other side of the door. The arguing died down and a girl I don’t remember from my previous visit answered. She is what I would guess around five-eleven, with bubblegum pink hair, and wearing a crop top and jeans. Before I can say anything she basically yells at me “What da you want?”

I take a quick breath and try to be nice despite the rude answer and reply “I’m looking for a small girl with long hair. I believe she lives here.”

She yells back “She’s not here, piss off,” and slams the door in my face.

I stand there not moving baffled by that interaction until a voice brings me out of my stupor. It says “Yeah Twink is a piece of work, you won't get anything out of her. You're the girl from last night right, follow me I know where she is.” I turn around to see the boy from last night beckoning me to follow him.

I follow him as we head back into the town proper. I gather my courage and say “I’m sorry for dragging you into all of that last night.”

He turns to me, smiles, and replies “No biggie. By the way, my name’s Alex, what’s yours?”

I say back almost not believing what he said “Reedia. You’re really not mad?”

“Yeah why wouldn’t I be, you didn’t know what was in there.” He says seemingly not even giving it a second thought. “I bet Rhode will feel the same way when we see her.”

I follow Alex up the stairs on the apartment building until he stops at room 316. He gestures towards it and says “Here we are.”

“I hope he’s right,” I mumble to myself as I preside to knock on the door. The door immediately gets answered by a man who looks down on us and says “Rhode, some of your friends are here to see you.” 

The girl I met last night, who now I know is named Rhode, comes to the door swaddled in a blanket. She sees me and says “What are you doing here, I never want to s-see you after yesterday.” She is visibly enraged.

“I just want to say sorry. I know I acted terrible last night. I hope I can fix it in the future.” I say while looking down at my feet. 

“S-sorry for what? S-scaring us in the middle of the woods at night Blackmailing us instead of helping us. Making me break and enter. Being a complete idiot. Or was it nearly killing, because a s-sorry won't fix any of that! Also with how much you s-screw-up, I don’t want ever to be near me, so leave!” She screams at me while increasing in anger and volume as she goes on. 

I run away. I couldn’t have stayed after that even if Alex forgave me. I just ran out and right back to my house. I ignored my parents' concerned words as I rushed past them into my room which I locked behind me. I cried a lot, not just because of the mean words but because they were right. I have been a jerk forever but I never got called out for it. I know that now I can’t try and make it better with them, so I have to help them from a distance. I write three versions of what happened last night in the hope that it will get us answers and that those responsible get justice. One version is for the school paper that I run, the second is for the town paper that my parents run, the last is to send to a radio station that I know will run the story. All of these versions only included my name so I will face all the consequences. 

Sadly when I showed the story to him he said “Sorry honey we can’t run this, it has no proof behind it. Are you sure this isn’t a dream you had when you passed out last night?”

I just walked away a bit disappointed but still glad that there are two more tries to get the story out. I hope this will help things, then maybe they’ll forgive me.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Alex and Rhode's day went

#  **CH. 6 A Serious Conversation**

“What the heck Rhode, why did you do that? She was just trying to apologize” I say to her while still hearing distant crying from the staircase. 

“You’re being too nice Alex. She s-screwed us last night, some things you can’t forgive” She says to me like she is lecturing a little kid.

Getting a bit pissed, a reply “I understand why you might not forgive her, but you didn’t have to rub it in.” I take a breath “Also you don’t have to talk down to me.”

“She needs to learn a lesson, but you are right I could’ve been more thoughtful. Also, I didn’t mean to talk down to you, can you forgive me.” She says looking ashamed and holding her arms out for a hug.

I take the hug and say “I’ll always forgive you but you’ll have to apologize to Reedia during school tomorrow. Anyways want to come to my house and hang today?”

“Yeah that s-sounds good, let me get my stuff.” Rhode exits the hug and closes the door behind her. A second later the door cracks open and she adds “Also might want to touch some metal you kept giving me s-static shocks.”

That's strange. I don’t see how I could’ve kept a static charge that long, but my thoughts are interrupted by Rhode coming out of the apartment. We walk to my house making small talk on the way. We pass by Brian’s house on the way and see it surrounded by police tape but no officers there. We try to get past that area as quick as possible. When we get to my house my dad is there. He gives us a brief “Hey” and gestures towards a plate of cookies that he probably made to help us feel better but doesn’t want to admit. We take the plate and head up to my room.

We play street fighter and eat the cookies in silence for about an hour, an uneasy mood surrounds the room. Trying to break it and annoyed with the unnatural silence I pipe up “We need to talk about yesterday. I can’t take it just hanging in the air” 

“Our friend got killed, we did all we can. The police have to take it from here. All we can do is grieve.” Rhode states matter factly. 

“I know that, and I know how to deal with people close to you dying.” raising my voice I add “I’m talking about the secret base, the ghosts, and the freaking magic mirror. How are you not freaked out about that?” My anger rises as she looks away.

After a bit of me angrily staring at her she shoots back “Look here I’m s-spooked by the government conspiracy, but we can’t do anything. People won’t believe us and if people do they’ve probably already covered it up. The best we can hope for is that the police find some evidence of it when they investigate.” She takes a pause. “Honestly we are lucky things turned out as they did. We could’ve gotten killed but the mirror saved us and we could’ve gotten found out but s-somehow they can’t ID us. If we stick our heads back in we’ll just get hurt more. Understand?” She says in a caring voice.

“Yeah just wanted to know I wasn't the only one let's go back to playing.” I move to grab my controller but see that it’s now burned.”Rhode take a look at this you have any idea how it happened” I say while handing over the controller.

“Naw that’s strange.”

“Yeah, strange.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day back at school

#  **CH.7 Back to School**

I wake up at five forty on Tuesday, the second for the first day back at school after the winter break. I consider going back to sleep so I can get more rest for the day, but I know I won't be able to fall asleep and even if I did it would just be more nightmares. I make my way down to the kitchen trying to not make any noise, as to not wake up anyone. I make it to the kitchen and see my Dad preparing to leave for his job. He sees me from the front door and says “you shouldn’t be up this early.” Then leaves.

I grab a box of cereal from on top of the fridge. I pour the cereal into a bowl, look at and decide I don’t just want some dry cereal. So, I grab some whipped cream and spray it on the cereal. That much better. I finish my breakfast and still, no one else is awake. I grab a book about Appalachian cryptids that Rex must have left down here. It is interesting enough, there is apparently a bug man close to our town. Though sadly there is nothing about cave ghosts in the book yet, that would help a lot. I am only halfway through so maybe that's saved for later. I am interrupted from my reading by my little brother Rex and owner of this book. “You finally getting interested in the paranormal. I knew you’d come around.” He says looking more excited than I’ve seen in a while.

Not wanting to damper that enthusiasm I reply “Yeah can’t believe a bug person lives s-so close to here. You know of anything like that here?” 

“It’s not a bug it’s a moth and Brown Lake is too boring for anything supernatural to happen.” He pouts a bit.

I look at the time and see that it’s just past 7 so the schools probably open. I say “Well that's a shame. Have some breakfast then we can go to school.”

“Okie dokie,” He says rushing off to make himself some toast.

When we arrived at school we split, him going to probably bother a teacher about his grades, and I found Alex, Brian, and my spot. When I get there I expect Brian to already be there like usual, but then I remember that he won't be here anymore. To distract myself I start reading, sadly the only book I bought was my history textbook. Thankfully soon my reading is interrupted by Alex’s voice “Studying for Ms. Rockwell’s test, smart.” 

“Yeah studying,” I say without enthusiasm and put down the book now that Alex is here. “Any idea where the weird girl might be?”

“Awww you remembered you have to apologize. But no, I don’t know where Reedia is. However, I found out she’s part of the school paper. So, we can go there after class.” He says while smushing my checks.

“Why not look for her now?” I say in a weird voice, as my cheeks are still smuched.

“Because it’s almost time to go to history and I want to get one of Ms. Rockwell’s pretest cookies before they're gone” He replies while drags me off toward the second-floor classrooms. As we are going up there I catch a figure in camo hide after spotting us. I must have scared the paper girl more than I thought.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhode tries to make up with Reedia after school

#  **CH. 8 After School**

The school day went as normal as it could. First I had a test in history, luckily it was a test on local history so it was easy. Second I had Stat which was as confusing as ever, then I was excused from gym like usual. Lastly, I had English where we just read some parts of Beowulf. As I didn’t share my last period with Alex we decided to meet in the library before heading to where every paper girl is. 

He’s already there when I arrive at the library talking with a teacher I have never had. I tap him on the shoulder and say “let’s-s go we got someplace to be Alex. S-sorry to interrupt your conversation.”

He turns towards me and says “One sec.” Then turn back towards the teacher. “Do you know what room the school paper is in?”

The teacher answers in a deep voice. “It’s in the 2nd health room, my young lad.”

“Thanks, see you tomorrow,” Alex replies while leaving and waving back at the teacher.

The health rooms are a short distance away from the library and still on the first floor. When we’re almost there I ask. “Who was that?”

While reaching out for the knob he answers. “That was our principal, do you really not,” but as he was about to finish that statement we hear a loud crash and what sounds like a sandbag hitting the floor. Alex quickly finishes opening the door after that. We gaze upon a peculiar classroom. There is one guy in a button-up black shirt and khaki just standing there, around him is a massive amount of paper and writing supplies strewn about the room, a camera left on a desk, and through an open window, we see paper girl running away.

Seemingly unbothered by the mess around he states in a monotone voice. “I hope she intends to come back and clean up.’' He glances at us and again in a monotone voice says. “Sorry for the mess my name is Edward Manual, but everyone calls me E-mail. I am the head of the student union. What brings you two here?”

I hesitantly speak up and say “I uhh may have insulted her, she might have taken it badly, s-so I’m here to apologize.”

“Making things right is an admirable action. I applaud you for the effort, though it seems she has someplace to be.” He says and actually applauds, but because of his tone, I can’t tell if he’s sarcastic. After 10 seconds of me staring quizzically at him, two more figures come into the room. It’s a guy and a girl. The guy is dressed like a rainbow barfed on him, like all his clothes are bright colors but none of them match. The girl is dressed normally enough with a sweater and all, but I remember her from my sat class earlier today where she said she moved here last week. 

New girl immediately asks “Is this the room for the school paper? I was hoping to join. Oooh, there is more members than I was led to believe.” She moves over to the table and grabs the camera and starts messing around with it. Rainbow stays by the door.

E-mail answers in his usual tone. “This is the room designated for the paper and you were not given the wrong information. I am here to check the paper to make sure it is suitable for the school. They are here to correct a mistake. Sadly you can not join currently as the only member is not here.”

“Yeah, we’re just leaving.” Alex pipes in and drags me out with him. He doesn’t let up until we’re around a corner.

“What was that you’re usually eager to meet new people?” Wanting to know what caused this out-of-charter reaction.

“Something just feels off about those two. Let's go to the police office and see if they found anything about Brian.” Says moving to leave faster than he usually does. We leave and get to the police station and when asked about Brian the officer just says that it was a pretty open and shut case of suicide. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Rhode investigates the crime scene and it's not how it seems

#  **CH. 9 An Investigation**

Me and Rhode exit the station after hearing the suicide report and I turn to her and say. “That can’t be right. We saw someone there and no one could make a suicide look like that.”

Rhode answers with. “You’re right and it’s not them covering the truth because of an ongoing investigation since we saw that they’ve abandoned the scene of the crime. S-someone must have messed with the house.”

“Should we look?” I ask nervelessly.

“I mean yeah, at worst we just see the dead body again. Right?” She says being weirdly unsure of herself. 

“Yeah you right, lets go,” I say while starting to move in the direction of Brian’s house. Rhode joins me and we are completely silent on the walk there due to the suspense of what we will find there. When we get there Rhode takes the lead and moves towards the door. All the windows of the house are covered by curtains. The only sign that the police were there is a do not enter sign made and signed by the chief taped to the door. Rhode finds that the door is locked so I grab the spare key still hidden in the electrical box and hand it to her. What greeted us when Rhode opened the door I don’t think anyone could have expected, I sure didn’t.

“What the hell is this” Rhode exclaims gesturing towards the white void that the door opened into. She walks into the void and I join her. I see nothing in the void other than Rhode and the still open door we came in through not connected to anything. “How is possible, this s-shouldn’t be possible,” Rhode says while crouching down and holding her head in her hands. Before I can think to do something she bolts back through.

I then also go out of the door but instead, through the side we entered from, to see if that did anything. It didn’t do anything except disorientate me when I came out. I don’t see Rhode anywhere, she must have gone someplace to calm down. What I do see is something shining in the bushes. When I get closer I see that it’s a camera, and it seems to have been placed there not dropped or anything. I pick it up and look at it. It looks like the same brand that Reedia left in the health class earlier today but with more wear on it. I turn it so I can look at the bottom and see that it does belong to Reedia as it has a label that has typed on it, _Property of Reedia Boutit._ I try to take a picture of the void but the camera doesn’t work, it seems to be out of film.

I know where Reedia lives so let's return this while Rhode calms herself down. I walk back towards where the giant mirror deposited us a few nights before. Wait the giant mirror that's gotta be somehow related to the white void. But why would someone both help us escape from that place and erase all the evidence that could lead to that place? A true conspiracy is going on in our town, I just hope that it doesn't hurt anyone else. Anyway, I get to the Boutit household and ring the doorbell but this time I stay. The door is answered by a tall beautiful woman who I assume to be Reedia’s mom. She asks me very politely. “Hello, there dear. What is your business here?”

“Well, Ms. Boutit-” but before I could continue she interrupted with. “Call me Noah, Ms. Boutit makes me sound old.”

“O.K Ms. Noah I found one of your daughter’s cameras and I came to return it,” I say while handing the camera over to her.

She seems to notice something behind me and says. “Looks like you arrived at a perfect time. Reedia seems to have just arrived, you can give it to her and she can give you a thanks.” I look behind me and see Reedia standing there like a deer in headlights. 

Reedia gets out of her stupor, comes up, and grabs the camera from her mother. When she looks I see a look of shock on her face before quickly returning to normal. She turns to me and says. “Thanks a lot, man. I don’t know how you got this, I lost it on New years eve.”

I just say back. “No problem just found it by 3rd street, see you later.” I leave but as I do Reedia seems to be annoyed. I don't know what I could have done wrong. It's not like she could have wanted me to stay, she ran away from us earlier today. About halfway back home I realize that she was hinting that she lost it at that place, so it should still be there. This conspiracy just got another level. I better tell Rhode, so I quickly change my destination from home to Rhode’s house. We better start finding out what's going on


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a week since the void and they haven't got anything.

#  **CH. 10 One Week Later**

It’s been a week since I’ve had my break down and Alex decided that we should find out what’s going on. We haven’t found anything, paper girl is still avoiding us, and I think there is something wrong with Alex. He’s been acting more impulsive than he used to and weird things have been happening to him. Like the burning controller and calculators shorting out. In addition, Rex has been hiding something from me and I’m worried about him. He looks like he is suffering but he won't say anything. I just wish he would talk so I could help him. But worst of all the two people we met in the journalism room, Rainbow and new girl, keep trying to be our friends. Like they keep coming up to us during lunch and after school. I just hope they don’t find us this as we decided to not eat in the cafeteria, so Alex can talk to me about his conspiracy theories. 

Before Alex could start on his ramblings we are interpreted by new girl. “Howdy you two. We almost couldn’t find ya. What we talking about.” She sits down followed by Rainbow like usual. Alex strikes up a conversation, his previous worries about the pair disappeared after the second time they talked. I’m not paying attention or contributing to the conversation as I don’t want anything to do with them. They are a little too high energy for me. So, I grab my bag, throw out the rest of my lunch, and head to astronomy early. No one notices. 

Before I get there I stop at my locker to pick up the correct materials, and as I open my locker a note falls out. It reads “ _ I know you two are looking into happening in this town and have special abilities. I’m not strong enough to do anything but you two might be. They are doing stuff in warehouse 3. I pray you can do something with your abilities. Good luck -M.” _

The note is written in very fancy cursive handwriting that I’ve never seen. Who is this M person and how the hell do they know about Alex’s conspiracy theories. He never talked about them with other people around, and even if they did know about it how did they get info when we couldn’t. My mind was going over those thoughts over and over again. So much so that I didn’t pay attention at all during class. 

Astronomy was my last class for that day. So, I go to the library and wait for Alex to finish his last class. I might not want to give the note to Alex as it might just make him more paranoid and want to look more into it. I don’t really want that just the void scared me enough and more of this can’t be good. In the end, I decided that I should give him the note as we should get justice for our friend. So, I read some Norse myths to pass the time. I always liked how Loki could change shapes, I wish I could do that. Just as I finish the one about Loki giving birth to a horse Alex walks in and sits down next to me. I hand him the note and say. “Look at this, it was stuffed in my locker.”

“Finally a clue, we should go to the warehouse right now,” he responds, already making his move.

“Are you sure it could be a trap?” I question him. 

He gives me a look as if I’m stupid and says. “Yeah, we have to follow up on the only clue we’ve gotten.”

“Well, let's at least wait until tonight so we prepare and maybe surprise them at night.” I try to reason with him.

“Fine, I'll meet you outside your house at eight. Don’t be late.” He rushes off. Alex changed a lot recently, he used to never charge into situations before. Like he used to make detailed plans on how to clear any encounter and had his sessions super planned out when we played D&D with Brian. 

I stay at the library until they kick me out, then I go home, and make myself and Rex PB&J for dinner. I knock on his door and he just grabs it without saying anything. He really hasn’t been himself since the day I found the void. Those two can’t be connected though, as he was doing some track training. So, I just eat my PB&J alone in my room. I just do homework until I see that it’s seven-thirty and decide that I should probably start getting ready. I put on a thick black coat to help me hide in the dark and maybe protect me if anything goes wrong. I grab my trusty brass knuckles, to do some damage, and some lockpick, in case we need to break into anything. It’s not seven-fifty and I head out, Twinkle sees me but doesn’t me.

Alex is also dressed in all black, but he also has a back-pack and is carrying a metal bat. He sees me and says. “You don’t seem to be too prepared with all the time we had. But we can’t change that, we need to move it.” He grabs me and dashes in the direction of the SMPC storage centers. I hope we don’t nearly die this time and nothing as freaky as the void happened.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reedia gets her chance to shine

#  **CH. 11 Being a Hero**

It’s been a week and I haven't been able to get any ground on fixing this. Dad said that he won’t put dreams or conspiracy theories in the town paper. Things didn’t go better with the school paper as E-mail basically rejects any story, not about sports or student activities, he says that anything other than that should be handled by the real paper. The only person that took my story about the ghosts was Donald Gastly, a conspiracy theorist who runs his own radio station, but he’s already the joke of the Brown Lake area. Plus he just twisted it to fuel his theory about the government making various chimera to sick on the soviets. 

During the past week, I’ve also been sneakily following Rhode and Alex to help if anything happened to them. I also have been taking my camera with me on these excursions to document anything that’s out of place like more supernatural stuff or government agents following them. Disappointedly nothing special happened, Alex just either went to some house or wandered around in the forest. I guess he was trying to investigate this whole thing, but he is awful at it. On the other hand, Rhode barely did anything but hole herself inside her, with the expedition of when Alex dragged her out. The only interesting thing that happened this week was that two people tried to join my paper club, but E-mail the wet blanket he is denied both of them. He said that denied one because the person was already doing marching band and you can’t be part of two clubs and the other because their grades weren't high enough to join an extracurricular activity. Anyway, it wouldn't be an understatement to say that the past week has not been going my way.

Now I’m in the sucky warehouse area of town in the middle of the night because I decided to come here after I overheard from my dad in school that sketchy stuff happens here. I thought that it would maybe be at a reasonable time like 5, but I’ve been here sitting in a barrel that smells like fish for 4 hours, and I’ve seen nothing. Scratch that I see someone coming. WHAT it’s Rhode and Alex what are they doing here. Have they stooped so low in their quest for information that they resorted to criminal avenues? No, they must have got a clue that I missed that led them back here. They are heading towards the warehouse diagonally across from me. 

Right before they got there the warehouse door that they were heading to opens and reveals seven men armed with machine guns and ready to fire. I immediately jump into action to try and help them and activate my power of reflection, hoping that I’m close enough for it to work. Thankfully it is and I summon a row of mirrors in front of Alex and Rhode to reflect the bullets back at the men. They both look shocked and aren't moving. I grab their shoulder and yell. “Run you two, my power can’t protect us forever.”

I run until I reach main street hoping that they followed me. I had no need to worry as Rhode pipes up and asks. “W-what was that? How'd you do that? W-why did they know w-we’re coming.”

Exhausted after using my power and sprinting away I answer. “Can’t answer now, tired, going home. Come to my house tomorrow for answers. Bye.” I wave and start walking home despite the protest I hear behind me. When I get home I see my parents cuddling on the couch watching TV and the cold dinner left for me on the kitchen counter. I exchange greetings with my parents, heat up and eat my dinner, a face plant on my bed going to sleep. 


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reedia gives Alex and Rhode some explanation of what has been going on.

#  **CH. 12 Getting an Explanation**

How could Reedia just leave us without an explanation of any of this after I spent the past week searching for answers, and how could Rhode just accept that and go home. She seems keen on not giving answers till tomorrow as she didn’t respond to my many questions I yelled at her. So, I decided to get my answers as soon as possible tomorrow by waiting outside her door. I know this might sound creepy and impulsive but they had a rocking chair outside so it wasn’t totally uncomfortable. Also, I just really need answers so I’ll wait outside the door until Reedia comes out.

I awaken from my sleep by a door opening and see a different place than where I normally wake up too. It takes me a minute but I recall what got me here. For a second I’m overwhelmed by the guilt of roping Rhode into this and staying outside Reedia's house all night, but I push those back in favor of the important thing of finding answers. So, I ask Reedia, “Ok it’s tomorrow what happened yesterday?”

She gives a look of pure confusion and then gives me an answer but not one I wanted. “Look when I said to you’ll come to my house tomorrow I meant after school. Cause I’m not gonna be late because you couldn't figure it out yourself. Also, did you spend all night out here cause that pretty creepy.” Then she just walks off to school. I can’t believe she just left me hanging like that. I won’t be able to function in class with this information being withheld from me, but I guess I’ll have to try. I rush off to try and catch her thinking that it would be easy given her, but she just disappeared. 

When I got to school I saw no hide nor hair of Reedia. I did see Rhode. She gave me a concerned look and asked me if I was ok for some reason. I brushed her off and just said I was fine and went off to search for Reedia for a few more minutes before the bell rang. I didn’t find her in those extra minutes, although I did see my new friends Natasha and Harry. They quickly rushed off once they saw me. They must have had to get to a class on the third floor. Resigning myself to the fate of waiting till after school I head to my first period. 

School today was like a blur. I just couldn't focus on anything until I got my answers. I think I bombed a test because Reedia wouldn’t freaking give me the answers before school. When the final bell finally rang I rushed towards the school paper club room as she is most likely there, and if not will go there soon. When I get there I see Rhode reading a book in the coroner and Reedia writing something in the center of the room. Reedia seemingly hears me enter as she says. “Finally you’ll are here, we can finally get started. Now let's get moving, can’t do the explaining here.” She picks up her stuff and moves to the door that I’m in and Rhode starts to follow her lead.

Getting tired of getting jerked around I stop her and ask. “Why can’t we do it here?”

Unexpectedly Rhode responds to me. “Use your brain d-dumbass. This is clearly s-some para-natural top-secret s-shit and school isn’t really a place that will stop people from seeing it.”

Understanding that but still not being very happy about having to, I reluctantly follow Reedia to wherever she was heading towards. On the way there we go into the woods and make our way off all of the well-worn walked footpaths. Reedia looks on edge as we travel like she thinks someone is gonna poop out from behind any tree and Rhode looks like she's lost in her own world. We eventually stop next to a tree trunk that fell over a river. Reedia sits down on the log and says. “Okie dookie, this should be a safe place ask away.”

I immediately ask “What was the mirror yesterday, is it related to the mirror that night, and did you control it?”

“Getting straight to the tough questions are we.” Reedia takes a breath before counting with. “That mirror was my lexeme of reflection. It allows me to make small mirrors to teleport inanimate objects a short distance or large mirrors to teleport people to anywhere I’ve been. Also by the way why haven’t you used your lexeme yet.”   
  


“What do you mean we haven’t used our lexeme we don’t have one?” I ask again hoping to get more answers.

“Pspht,” Reedia responds like I just asked the stupidest question and adds. “Have you just not talked to them in a dream, well whatever. To use your lexeme you just have to calm yourself and try to find a word in your soul, and once you find that word channel to use its power.”

I try and follow her advice and calm myself. I see Rhode doing the same, but I just can’t seem to clear my head. There are just too many thoughts moving around in there and they just won't stop, but before I could get truly annoyed Rhode pipes up. “Are we doing anything wrong? I can’t feel anything.”

Reedia responds with “Of course you don't feel anything, you're just a normie. You’re not special like we are.”

Rhode explosively responds to that with. “ **F-Fuck you** . Did you just call us out here to make fun of me! You just gonna ruin s-stuff more than you already did.  **Goodbye** . Come on let's go Alex.” and she starts to storm off.

  
Without thinking a yell out “ **Wait** ” and reach out trying to get Rhode to stay for more answers. Before she could do anything in response to me a lightning bolt rushes out of my hand straight into Rhode's left arm and a word pops into my head.  **IMPULSE.**

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks, anyone for reading this. This is my first time really writing anything so I would love some feedback and criticism. Again thanks for reading this


End file.
